Tafsir al-Manar

"Tafsir al-Manar," an exegesis of the Qur'an written by Muhammad Rashid Rida from the lessons of his teacher Muhammad Abduh, and published in instalments in the journal "al-Manar." The author opens his introduction with the aim he intends for exegesis: that the Qur'an be understood as guidance for people. He then sets out his method of distinguishing the transmitted material from other material ¹.

According to the author, the lessons began on the first of Muharram 1317 AH, and publication began in the third volume of al-Manar at the start of Muharram 1318 AH. Shaykh Muhammad Abduh usually reviewed what was being prepared for printing before it was published. Abduh died in Jumada I 1323 AH before Rida had completed the exegesis, so after his death Rida attributed to him what he had written from him word for word, and where he had not written it down word for word he said, "He said something to the effect of" ^{2 3}.

Rida died before completing it. The editor's preface states that the exegesis reached the explanation of verse 52 of Surat Yusuf ⁴.

He is keen to show the guidance of the Qur'an and its laws concerning creation. He expands on matters of human life and the world that the exegetes had neglected, and avoids excessive word analysis, grammatical parsing and theological disputes. He says that the long commentaries on grammar, rhetoric and theology may distract the reader from the aim of the Qur'an. He holds that what is sound from the transmitted material should be cited with its attribution, and that what is not known to be sound should not be built upon ^{5 1 6}.

His view is that a large part of the transmitted material in exegesis is a veil over the Qur'an, not because it is all false, but because its abundance diverts attention from the aims. This is the author's view, and it is presented here as such ⁷.

Volumes two to six have not yet been read, and the views of other books on the aims and the method have not yet been added. The local edition has not been checked against another edition, and the page numbers given are the page markers of a local OCR copy.